Film Review: The Bell Witch Haunting (2013)

The Sawyer family moves into their new home in Robertson County, which is haunted by a legendary demon...

The
Bell Witch Haunting is a basic, by-the-books found-footage horror film.
The story follows a family that moves into their new home, which is
supposedly built on haunted grounds. Brandon, the son, is an aspiring
filmmaker, I think, and he decides to record everything. Things go bump
in the night, lights turn on by themselves, and so on. The ending is
predictable and cliché – aside from being a disappointing narrative, the
ending also features an almost unbelievable goof/mistake.

The
Bell Witch Haunting is nothing new. If you've seen any found-footage
films in the last few years, you've likely already seen The Bell Witch
Haunting. However, that's not a reason to complete ignore a film, so I
decided to watch it – I'm not bias in any way. The story is bland. It's
by-the-books and plays it safe. It is actually riddled with cliché
characters and dialogue, which further hurt the already generic
narrative. And, there seem to be a handful of inconsistencies with the
storytelling and the timeline. There is a little more going on than your
typical Paranormal Activity film, though. There is some suspense, I
actually liked two or three of the jump-scares, and there are some
decent visuals. There's not nearly enough horror to warrant a feature
length film, though.

The acting ranges from terrible to
mediocre. There aren't any outstanding performances, they're all pretty
bad. In fact, some of their performances, along with some of the
writing, is unintentionally hilarious. This is a found-footage film, so
expect the same cinematography as the last found-footage film you
watched. One of the worst parts of the film was the incredibly sloppy
camerawork – the actors can't seem to hold the camera still to save their lives; it
is, at times, nauseating. The better half of me wants to believe they
left out the credits to keep an authentic-vibe for the film; the cynical
half wants me to believe this crew didn't want their names tainted by
this work. Too bad. Director Glenn Miller has an offensive lack of
ambition and vision, and really should have had more control of his
cameras.

Overall, The Bell Witch Haunting
is a bad found-footage
horror film. There are some redeeming scares, and some spooky and
creative visuals, but they are outnumbered by the severe technical
flaws. I applaud it for having more going on than Paranormal Activity 4
and Absence, which were terrible found-footage horror films. I was close
to giving this a 4/10, but the camerawork and ending are too
detrimental to the experience.

Score: 3/10 Parental Guide: Some violence and blood, some brief nudity. (Some women flash their breasts during a pool party.)